Liberal society thrives on open government and closed personal relations. Feminists have stressed that closed personal relations make it more likely that serious harm will go undetected. n86 A parent-child relationship may involve sexual abuse or neglect; a marital relationship may involve beatings or rape. Government cannot protect vulnerable citizens from domestic violence if unbreachable boundaries of legally sanctioned privacy surround the family. The worthiness of the privacy ideal has been called into question in the United States, where problems of domestic violence suggest a need for more, rather than less, involvement in the traditionally "private" spheres of home and family life. n87 It is no longer acceptable that men and women batter one another-or that parents batter their children-in the name of anger or discipline.

B. PRIVACY PERPETUATES VIOLENCE AND SUBORDINATION AGAINST WOMEN, CHILDREN, AND THE ELDERLY

Liberal philosophers (other than liberal feminists) have tended to overlook the risks of harm that privacy poses. These risks, however, must be factored into any complete ethical analysis of privacy. Feminists have demonstrated that the private sphere of home and family is a site of peril and subordination. n72 Feminists claim that privacy facilitates subordination and shields violence against spouses, children, and the elderly. n73 If what feminists say is true, it might seem to follow that one ought not lament the apparent demise of privacy-related tastes and expectations. I believe a different conclusion is warranted.

The concept of privacy has been central to the feminist critiques of Western liberal societies. Feminist scholars have been in the forefront of liberal, progressive, and communitarian efforts to debunk and rebuild liberal understandings of privacy and private choice. n74 Many feminists explicate privacy-construed primarily as the private sphere of home and family life-as the problematic context of traditional female subordination and isolation in subservient, dependent socio- economic roles. n75 They argue on good evidence that violence and neglect can befall vulnerable individuals in any area of domestic or commercial life when a community or its government abrogates responsibility to citizens and enterprises tagged "private." n76